Gresham-Barlow School District placed on College Board’s 4th Annual AP District Honor
Roll for Sam Barlow High School’s significant gains in advanced placement access and
student performance

Gresham-Barlow School District one of three in Oregon to receive honor

Gresham-Barlow School District is one of 477 school districts in the U.S. and Canada and one of three in Oregon being honored by the College Board with placement on the 4th annual Advanced Placement (AP) District Honor Roll.

Since 2011, Sam Barlow High School has increased the number of students participating in AP by 8% while improving the percentage of students earning AP exam scores of 3 or higher by 10%. Reaching these goals indicates that the school is successfully identifying motivated, academically prepared students who are likely to benefit from rigorous AP course work.

In 2013, more than 3,300 colleges and universities around the world received AP scores for college credit, advanced placement, and/or consideration in the admission process, with many colleges and universities in the United States offering credit in one or more subjects for qualifying AP scores.

“The school district is extremely proud of the work going on at Sam Barlow High School,” said Superintendent Jim Schlachter. “The school has made changes to make AP classes accessible to more students. Their commitment to creating a rigorous, relevant, and challenging environment for our students is paying off.”

“We applaud the extraordinary efforts of the devoted teachers and administrators in this district who are offering more students the opportunity to engage in rigorous college-level course work,” said Trevor Packer, the College Board’s senior vice president of AP and Instruction.

Helping more students learn at a higher level and earn higher AP scores is an objective of all members of the AP community, from AP teachers to district and school administrators to college professors. Many districts are experimenting with a variety of initiatives and strategies to determine how to simultaneously expand access and improve student performance.

Inclusion on the 4th Annual AP District Honor Roll is based on the examination of three years of AP data, from 2011 to 2013, for the following criteria.

Districts must:

Increase participation/access to AP by at least 4 percent in large districts, at least 6 percent in medium districts, and at least 11 percent in small districts;

Increase or maintain the percentage of exams taken by African American, Hispanic/Latino, and American Indian/Alaska Native students, and;

Improve performance levels when comparing the percentage of students in 2013 scoring a 3 or higher to those in 2011, unless the district has already attained a performance level at which more than 70 percent of its AP students are scoring a 3 or higher.